Better On The Underside
by DarkStrangeAndUnusual
Summary: A human woman is chased through a forest and into a cave thought to be haunted. Now she finds herself in an underground world filled with monsters who are not as they seem. She also finds there is a dark presence lurking among the creatures. She must do what she can to help her new friends. Besides, who would want to return to the surface anyways?


**Better On The Underside**

 **Chapter 1 : The Fallen**

The dry leaves crunched under the weight of her footsteps as she made her way deeper into the forest. Her black cloak pulled the forest floor along as it dragged behind her. She stopped for a brief moment and held her breath. The snap of branches came ringing through the trees as something made its way toward her. She pulled her large hood down to her shoulders to reveal her wavy, raven hair. Her hair shined in the moonlight and hints of purple peered from behind her shoulders.

Anxious voices closed in on her. She drew up her hood and moved deeper through the trees. She quickened her pace as she moved, careful to watch where she stepped as not to give away her position. Through the trees she could see what looked like the mouth of a cave higher on the mountain side. The loud crack of a tree branch nearby made her stop in her tracks. She crouched down low and backed into a convenient brush.

"Damn it. I think we lost her," a man's voice came from a few feet away.

"We didn't lose her. She's just hiding somewhere," another man said as they swept their flash lights back and forth.

"Just find that stupid freak," a woman's voice demanded.

The young woman glanced behind her, toward the cave. It was still a ways away, but if she ran when they had their backs turned then she might be able to make it.

The beams swept away from the bush. She waited for them to take a few steps away from her hiding spot before she gripped her bag she had hidden under her cloak and darted up the mountain.

As soon as she moved, she was lit by the flashlights and the chase ensued. Shouts came from behind her as her pursuers clumsily followed, trying to keep up with her pace. The woman vaulted over a fallen log in an attempt to evade the small mob. She stumbled a bit on her landing and braced herself against a tree to keep from losing ground.

A loud thump came from behind her and was accompanied with a sharp pain in the back of her head. She could see the cave was close. She pushed off of the tree and ran as fast as she could toward her sanctuary. As she ran, she brought a hand up to the back of her throbbing head. She was beginning to run short on breath which was coupled with her sight that began to drift in and out of focus. She brought her hand down from her head and in the moon's dim light she could see blood shimmering on her palm.

She held her bag tightly as she entered the cave. She felt around for anything to hide behind, but to no avail. Soon, the darkness of the cave was filled with light and malevolent laughter.

Using the misfortune of the situation to her advantage, she surveyed the newly lit area. There was a large hole to the left and a corridor to the right. She stumbled toward the dark, deeper into the cave. The others knew they had her cornered and slowed to a mocking strut, all the while calling to her and taunting.

She felt her way along the walls, deeper and deeper into the cave. The stone was mostly bare, aside from a few vines. The further she walked, the more vines she found growing on the walls. The throbbing in the back of her head had become too much. She leaned against a tangle of foliage to catch her breath, her head spinning from the pain.

As she stood there gasping, her pursuers turned the corner. One of the men in the group was tossing a fist sized rock in the air over and over again.

"Nowhere to run, freak," one man said as he smashed a glass bottle on the ground. He turned and nodded to the man holding the rock. With one fluid movement, the stone was airborne. The woman took a step back to avoid another wound.

There was a sudden crack of rocks breaking as the ground gave way beneath her. She reached for a vine to keep herself from falling, only to have it break from her weight.

She landed with a heavy thud that knocked what little breath she had left out of her. She lay on the ground gasping with her eyes closed, unsure of what to do next or where she even was. She felt the ground below her, it was wet and soft. She took a few slow, deep breaths to calm herself. Once calm, she slowly opened her eyes, expecting to see nothing but darkness.

Blinding light forced her to close her eyes. She rubbed her face in an attempt to adjust to the unexpected light. Light became colors. Colors became shapes. She blinked a few more times until she could finally see clearly. She was in an unusual forest. The trees almost seemed to glow softly. Not far above them was the cave ceiling, glowing fungi and crystals hung from the stone like brightly shining stars. There was a thick blanket of snow that covered everything. Beneath her was a bed of strange yellow flowers. Off to her right was a single flower growing alone out of the snow. It moved slightly as if a nonexistent wind had blown it closer to face her.

A sharp pain splintered through her head. She sat up quickly and moaned as she held her head in her hand. Doing so caused her cloak to open and expose her bare skin to the cold. She pulled her cloak closed and drew her hood up over her head as she brought herself to her knees. She looked for the flower she saw before, only to find no trace of it. Her head began to spin forcing her to fall forward onto her hands.

"Oh god, are you ok?" a deep, velvety voice shouted. She could hear soft footsteps in the snow as the kind soul ran toward her. She felt a thin hand lightly touch her shoulder and carefully pull away. She gave a pained moan in response.

"Oh my god, you're bleeding. Here, let me see what you are so I can help," the voice was soothing and kind.

The delicate hands gently gripped her shoulders with a surprising amount of strength as they helped her sit up.

"Thank you," she replied weakly as she removed her hood to see her rescuer. Her eyesight blurred everything together. She blinked a few times to regain her sight and as she did, her savoir suddenly released her from his grip.

"Oh shit. Not another one," his voice sounded shocked.

She opened her eyes to see a skeleton in a blue, fur lined hoodie kneeling before her. She screamed and fell backwards.

"Demon!" she shouted as she grabbed her bag from the flower bed.

"Oh no, no, no. Now calm down, you're gonna be ok. Wait, w-what are you doing?"

She reached into her bag and pulled out a small satchel full of salt. Gripping it by the bottom, she flung the contents at the creature. The salt struck him directly in the skull. He screamed and brought his hands up to his eye sockets.

"Oh my god, why would you do that?!" he shouted as he shook his head in an attempt to dull the pain.

The woman watched as he rubbed his face, his eye sockets began to tear up with a glowing blue liquid.

"Holy shit, that stings," he turned toward the woman and snickered while he continued to rub his face, "Do you always a-salt people you just meet?"

The woman stood quickly in an attempt to run, but the excitement was too much for her. She immediately collapsed onto the snow in front of the skeleton.

Eye sockets still burning, he rushed over to her and rolled her over. Just as he moved her, her cloak fell to one side reveling her to be completely nude beneath it. Her skin was a pale pink that stood out against the bright white of the snow. His eye sockets widened and skull flushed blue as he struggled to quickly cover her again.

"O-oh my god, I'm so sorry," he whispered, clearly flustered with what he just saw.

He turned towards the trees behind him, "Paps! I could use some help!" he shouted.

A second skeleton came running into view. The clothing he wore looked to resemble armor while his tattered red scarf flapped behind him as he ran.

"Sans, what is the meaning of this? Who is that?" his voice was a bit higher than the first skeleton's and held a sharp sound that bordered on a villainous tone.

"Papyrus, don't freak out ok?"

"Sans," he said with growing concern, "what's going on?"

Sans carefully moved the hood to show the woman's face. Papyrus stumbled backwards in shock.

"Sans! Is that a human?!"

"Yeah."

"Why does it look like that?! What did you do?"

"She's hurt. I found her like this," Sans stood up, "I'm gonna need your help getting her home."

"You cannot be serious!" Papyrus threw his gloved hands in the air, "We already have one human at home. We can't keep bringing home strays."

"Bro, she's hurt. She won't survive if we just leave her here."

Papyrus let out a heavy sigh, "Alright," he said as he bent down and scooped the woman up in his arms.

Sans smiled, "You're the best, bro."

"Yes, I know."

Sans grabbed the bag from the flower bed and slung it over his shoulder as he followed his brother back home.

The woman opened her eyes to find she was in an unfamiliar place. She looked around to gain an idea of her situation. It was clear that she was in a scarcely furnished bedroom. Even though the room itself was a mess, the bed she was laying in looked to be clean and freshly made. Dirty clothes were strewn about carelessly among small piles of garbage. In the center of the room was a treadmill that looked to be the only thing that was well used.

The skeleton she had met in the forest sat on the floor in front of the door. Startled, she gasped and pulled the blanket over herself. After a few deep breaths, she summoned enough courage to peer out from beneath the blanket.

The creature sat leaning against the door. He drew in a deep breath and mumbled something as he raked his boney finger across the side of his skull. He let out a heavy sigh as he let his head fall slightly to one side. His jaw became slack and a glowing blue blob of drool oozed from the corner of his ever present grin.

Her captor seemed to be asleep. She gave a disappointed groan. 'Some monster' she thought. She slowly removed the blanket that hid her and began to get out of the bed when a loud knock came from the door. The sound forced her to retreat under the covers once again.

"Sans! Time to wake up. I brought the human something to eat."

"Huh?" the skeleton stretched and yawned, "Oh, ok. Let me unlock the door real quick."

The creature lazily stood and opened the door. A second skeleton stood in the door way. One hand was on his hipbone while the other held a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. He tapped his foot impatiently.

"You lazy bones, what if the human were to escape while you were asleep?" the taller creature sighed.

"Seeing how I was sleeping against the only exit, I think I would have noticed."

The second skeleton groaned and walked over to the bed as the first one closed the door behind them. He reached down and with his free hand, gently tapped the mass under the blanket. The woman hiding beneath the covers began to shake uncontrollably, unsure of her fate.

"Fear not human!" his voice was much stronger than before, "I, the Great Papyrus, will not harm you. I only wish to help you heal from the wondrous battle you must have fought before we found you in the forest."

The woman slowly emerged from under the covers. She looked around the room once again, but this time with a much calmer mind. It certainly didn't look like a place to hold a captive. She suddenly remembered where the rock had struck her and brought a hand up to her head. In all her confusion, she had not noticed her head had been treated for the wounds she suffered and bandaged. She looked down to discover that she was also clothed now, she was wearing a large shirt that said 'Cool Dude' and a pair of black striped shorts. She pulled the covers to one side and sat on the edge of the bed, still unsure of what was happening. The taller skeleton sat next to her on the bed while the shorter one leaned against the doors frame.

"I am the Great Papyrus. You may call me Papyrus. You have already met my brother, Sans."

"Yo."

"You are in no danger, human. I have prepared you my famous spaghetti in hopes that you will regain your strength," Papyrus handed the hot plate of pasta to the woman, "We will care for you until you have made a complete recovery. Now, please enjoy your meal and let us know if there is anything you need."

Papyrus smiled and promptly left the room. Sans locked the door once his brother was gone and sat back down on the floor.

"In case you're wondering, I'm only keeping the door locked so Frisk doesn't come in and bother you. They're our other human, but I think they're much younger than you are," Sans motioned toward the woman, "How old are you anyways?"

"Ummm, I'm thirty…," the woman said in a remorseful, hushed tone.

"And what is that for a human? Are you still a child?" Sans raised an eyebrow ridge out of curiosity.

"N-no, I'm an adult…," she stuttered a bit, confused by the question.

Sans chuckled, "I only asked because monsters age differently from humans," he placed his hands behind his head and closed his eye sockets as he leaned into the door, " We haven't seen a human other than our little Frisk in a long time, so naturally we don't know that much about humans. Monsters age at different rates that change in response to our situation or environment. We'll even stop aging all together if we suffer a great loss."

The woman set the plate of spaghetti down on the bed and brought a hand to her mouth. She sat quietly, lightly gnawing on the tip of her thumb as she stared at Sans.

After sitting in silence for a moment, Sans opened his left eye socket to find the woman still staring at him. She looked much more relaxed with his presence, but she was clearly perplexed and still confused.

"What's up? You look like you have a skele-ton of questions," he chuckled a bit at his own pun and surprisingly, so did the human. Sans face lit up as he thought, 'This human might not be half bad if she likes my jokes, heh heh.'

She stood, walked over to the door and knelt down next to the skeleton. She slowly brought an inquisitive hand up to his skull. She stopped for a moment to question her decision. She took a deep breath and forced her shaking hand to move forward.

"Uhh, whacha doin' there, buddy?" the white point of light coming from inside his eye socket began to glow blue as he watched the woman's hand come closer. He sat still, willing to sedate her curiosity.

She rested her hand below his eye socket and the bone beneath her fingertips grew warm and started to glow blue. He drew in a hitched breath as she traced along his cheekbone and up near his temple. Her eyes followed her fingers as they explored the side of his skull, trying to understand what she could not explain.

Sans held his breath as the warm finger tips caressed his face. This human acted differently from Frisk. Frisk would blindly accept everything in their world. This one was incredibly inquisitive. Her hand moved toward his eye socket once again. His eye flashed yellow and in an instant he had her wrist in the grip on his hand.

"I don't know what the big eye-dea is, but I'm beginning to think you're trying to blind me," he opened both eyes and turned his head to give her a glare. Her face was a mixture of complete shock and utter fear.

"Oh man, I'm sorry," Sans released her and turned to face her fully. His demeanor was much softer now and his eyes were glowing their soft white light once again, "First it was the salt and just now you kinda looked like you were gonna put your finger in my eye socket. I forget how strange we must be to your kind."

"So…y-you have eyes?" she stammered.

"Yeah, they're just not squishy like yours are."

"This isn't a dream is it?" her voice was quiet and distant while she looked down at her hands. He could hear the catch in her throat as she fought back the tears.

Sans sighed and rose to his feet. He extended a hand and helped the woman up and back over to the bed. He then returned to his guard post in front of the door. Leaning against the frame, he slid down to the floor and got comfortable.

"Eat up. You'll need the energy. Once you're better, I'll show you around Snowdin," Sans voice trailed off as he quickly drifted off to sleep.

The woman picked up the plate from the bed and cautiously took a bite of the spaghetti. It was delicious. The fact that a skeleton could cook such a quality meal was surprising. It took her no time to finish the whole plate. She set the empty dish on the floor and crawled under the blanket. She laid her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. The day had left her completely drained. Her mind raced as she thought of what awaited her outside the room she was in. The busy buzzing in the head didn't last long before Sans' slow and steady breathing calmed her mind and lulled her to sleep.


End file.
